Sunday, 22 March 2015

The Rules of Creative Writing by author Kurt Chambers

The indie publishing scene has grown so massive over the
last few years that writing and publishing your own book has become possible
for anyone who wishes to do so. This has caused a lot of mixed feelings. The
main criticism is the quality of writing. In order to become published
mainstream, you usually need a fundamental understanding of the 'creative
writing rules' in order to be taken seriously. Unless you're a celebrity, of
course. Self-published authors can publish anything they want without having to
know anything.

When I first set out as an author, I didn't care much for
these rules. I believed you should write however you want. What's wrong with
some originality? I spent many years in a novel workshop, writing and reviewing,
learning and slowly honing the skills that were taught to me. Now I can see why
learning these rules was so important. It does make you a much stronger writer.
When I questioned these rules, the advice I was given was, ‘You have to first learn
these rules in order to know when it is okay to break them.’

In this post today, I want to share with you just a few basic
things that will help make your writing stronger. You can use this as a guide
when it comes to editing your first draft. Try it for yourself. Edit one
chapter of your manuscript applying these few rules, and see what you think of
the difference. Read it aloud in order to hear how your story sounds to the ear
as well as in your mind.

Some Basic Creative
Writing Rules

Show, don't tell:

I was taught never to 'tell' the reader anything. This is a
great rule that will add so much more depth to your writing if done well. To
try and 'show' everything isn't always practical. For example, you don't need
to go into pages of description about a particular uniform with a brass helmet
and matching buttons just to inform the reader that this character is a
fireman. But as a general rule, especially when it comes to emotions, it is better
to 'show' as much as you can.

Example...

Johnny entered the dark room and came to a standstill. Something
was wrong. The door slammed closed, making him jump. He was terrified.

Johnny entered the dark room and came to a standstill. His
heart beat faster. The slamming door sent a jolt through his body. He gripped
his chest, fighting for gasps of breath.

Both these sentences are describing the same scene. In the
second sentence, I replaced the 'telling' statements with character action. It's
clear to see the difference between the two. Read through your manuscript one
paragraph at a time and see how many 'telling' statements you could replace in
a similar way.

I had a terrible 'telling' habit when I first started out,
so I made a list of character actions to help me 'show' emotions. Telling is
fine in a first draft, but when it comes to editing, you may find this list
useful.

POV (point of view):

This is a very important aspect that all authors need to get
to grips with. I never had an understanding of this when I wrote some of my
first novels and had to spend many hours editing at least two complete novels
to correct all the POV mistakes. Instead of explaining POV in great detail to you,
I am going to take the easy way out and share an article by Pam McCutcheon, who
explains it so wonderfully. It was this article that taught me what POV
actually was, and I am only too happy to share it with you.

POV is something of a personal preference. The growing trend
these days is to write in first person perspective, especially in young adult genres.
It is said you can get a deep POV that really gets into the head of the
character. I only write in third person limited myself and like to think I can
get a deep POV using this method. I think it is the most popular POV for middle
grade readers. We are all different. I guess it comes down to whatever you are
used to reading.

Adverb abuse:

Adverbs (words ending in 'ly') are wonderful things but do
fall into the 'telling' category. Using too many is viewed as lazy writing. It
is quite easy to rely on them as a shortcut to describing a character's
feelings, actions and facial expression in just one word.

"I think she passed away," he said sadly.

What you should be doing is describing the actions of the
character in more detail to paint a better image for the reader.

"I think she passed away." He held a palm to his
forehead, releasing a long sigh.

It is a worthwhile exercise to skim through your manuscript
looking for adverbs you could eliminate to make your writing much stronger. You
will be surprised at how many authors use them wastefully, pardon the pun. Here
is an example of how they can sometimes be placed in a sentence for no reason.

He crept into the darkened room quietly.

The verb 'crept' is strong enough to give the reader enough
information on the actions of the character without having to use the adverb
'quietly'.

We used to use a ball-park figure of no more than three
adverbs per chapter. How many have you used?

Passive voice:

This is not the easiest thing to explain. There are certain
trigger words that cause passive voice. Words like 'was' and 'were', for
example. I am no expert in this field, so I will post a link that will explain
it in all its glorious technical details, using examples to show the difference
between active and passive sentences.

Although passive voice is difficult to explain, it is
something that will become more and more obvious to you once you have a general
idea of what to look for.

Repeated and unneeded words:

This may seem like something trivial to worry about, but by
simply finding and changing words that are repeated often, you can improve the
'flow' of writing by quite a bit. Also, when you read your manuscript out loud
to yourself, you may find there are some unneeded words that just choke up the
writing. Use as few words as needed, well-chosen words.

These are some of the basic rules that I was taught in my
novel workshop that I sometimes see lacking in the growing trend of indie
authors. For those authors out there who are still submitting manuscripts to
publishers and editors, these are some of the things that could lead to your MS
being rejected. For those authors who are publishing themselves, I hope you
find this helpful in bringing your books to a higher literary standard that
will make them shine above the rest. Good luck to you all and happy writing
(and editing).

Shameless plug:

If you are interested in seeing the results of a finished
novel putting into practice the above set of rules then you can download a free
copy of my award winning fantasy novel, Truth Teller. It is a heart-warming
tale of true friendship in an action packed adventure. It is free to all
readers in any format.

Truth Teller

How could ten-year-old Charlotte ever envisage that magic
really existed. For her, the world of other realms belonged in children's fairy
tales—or so she thought—until she discovers a strange shopkeeper, which begins an
adventure that will change her life forever.

When she finds herself lost and alone in a far away forest, she
must embark on a journey where heart-stopping danger and real life monsters are
real. However, a far greater threat shadows her every move. Even with the
strengths and skills of her new companions, they cannot protect her against a
ruthless druid assassin.

But in this realm, Charlotte
is not the vulnerable little girl she thought she was.

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About Me

I am a writer of children's books, (Middle Grade.) I have published the first book in my fantasy series, Truth Teller. I also have a fantasy/sci-fi novel, Unknown Reality, that I have just completed and is about to enter the submission process. I have various other books in the pipeline including a MG novel aged at younger children, The World in Johnny's Back Garden. Please click on the book covers above to read excerpts of my stories.